Steve Carney provides a detailed account of how Arbitron's Portable People Meters (PPMs) have not only changed radio ratings but radio programming itself. In addition to format changes, the change to instant measurement from the diary method -- which relied on listeners' memories -- has resulted in the end of such practices as incessant repetition of station call letters, and promotions timed to reach a crescendo just before the end of diary periods. The PPMs may also have led to the playing of less new music -- because now Arbitron knows when someone hears the first notes of …

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we're going to be hearing lots of personal remembrances, and here's one of the best so far: Multichannel News editor, former Wall Street Journal reporter and our fellow Brooklynite Mark Robichaux blogs about how office papers from the World Trade Center rained down on his neighborhood, how he had spent every morning for ten years buying bagel and coffee from the same lady at the same coffee shop in 2 WTC, and how touched he was by TV images of the first responders, the survivors, the families of victims, the heroes.

As part of their new franchise agreements with New York City, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have agreed to provide their subscribers with free WiFi in 32 public parks within two years. Non-subscribers will also get WiFi for free, but only three 10-minute sessions per month. After that, they'll be charged 99 cents a day. Other provisions in the new agreement include TWC partnering with local nonprofits to create 40 public computer centers with free broadband access within low-income communities, and Cablevision providing free Internet service to all public libraries within its service area.

Here's a take from a major New Jersey newspaper about the state's emergence as a reality show mainstay. These shows are "centered on average Joes and Janes with larger-than-life personas," writes Lisa Rose, who also quotes a Montclair State University professor: "New Jersey has become like an industrial ingredient for reality TV." A new Jersey entry, "Bear Swamp Recovery," about Trenton repo men, starts Monday on truTV. In October comes DIY's "Brothers on Call," about bickering Ridgewood contractors. They join MTV's "Jersey Shore, TLC's "Cake Boss," Oxygen's "Jersey Couture," Style's "Jerseylicious," DIY's "Man Caves" and Bravo's "Real Housewives of …

With the "anything goes" mentality of television and radio these days, we had no idea the Fairness Doctrine still existed. And now, finally, it doesn't. On Monday, the FCC officially removed the doctrine from its rulebook, although the policy hasn't been enforced for 25 years. The lack of enforcement helped usher in conservative talk radio, writes John Eggerton, and Republicans have been particularly concerned about the possibility of the doctrine returning. That possibility is now gone, along with other bygone rules that required free response time to personal attacks and equal time for opponents when a station endorsed a candidate.

PaidContent's headline sums it up: "Sex and the (E-) Single Girl." Cosmopolitan has packaged three "naughty tales" that appeared in consecutive issues of the magazine this summer into its first "e-single" -- a digital volume titled "Cosmo's Sexiest Stories Ever." Published in a 50/50 venture with Open Road Integrated Media, the 99-cent collection is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple's iBookstore, the Sony Reader Store and Overdrive. The included stories are "Sex Under the Stars" by Jane Green, "Birthday Sex She'll Never Forget" by Jennifer Weiner, and "Falling in Lust at the Jersey Shore" by Meg Cabot.

Per-inquiry direct response advertising has come to digital out-of-home, as tech firm rVue is making it easier for outdoor ad nets to run infomercials, Groupon deals and other DR vehicles on their screens. A web hub allows rVue's partners to choose content for their networks, which will provide 800 numbers or QR codes to entice consumers to make purchases on the go. The content is expected to fill unsold, remnant inventory on outdoor networks. Advertisers won't pay for the ad time, and rVue and its partners will share in any revenue the advertisers generate.

Once upon a time, say the 1950s, New York City was a bastion for prime-time TV programming. So it goes again -- and to tout the fact that 23 of this season's prime-time series are being filmed in city studios, Mayor Mike Bloomberg showed up at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which blogger Adriane Quinlan notes once "bustled with ships." There, Bloomberg stood on a set made to recreate the Pam American World Airways terminal, which once stood at an airport named Idlewild -- now JFK. Bloomberg noted that the producers of ABC's "Pan Am" have also …

With a dedicated investigative unit and a fierce commitment to enterprise reporting, a family-owned TV station in the 27th largest market -- Indianapolis -- has emerged as a model for large market television journalism, reports Diana Marszalek. WTHR, an NBC affiliate owned by the two-station Dispatch Broadcast Group, has won this year's RTDNA's Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence by a large-market station, plus DuPont and Peabody awards. "If all we do is cover the late-breaking news then we are rapidly making ourselves irrelevant in the minds of our viewers," says news director Keith Connors. Oh yes, WTHR's news …

Here's an interesting trend: the launching of magazines offering advice on using social media.  Four titles from GSG WorldMedia will launch next month, focusing respectively on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google: fb & Business, Tweeting & Business, LI & Business and The Big G & Business.The magazines will be distributed through Office Depot in a variety of formats -- with print expected to account for just 5% of the total circulation.   Some 5 million readers will receive the magazine for free via an opt-in Office Depot email list.  The GSG titles join The Social Media Monthly, launched last week by …